Part of Paul Clancy’s schtick is that he is the only one with the exhaustive knowledge of Robert’s (and Council) Rules and encyclopedic knowledge of the last time Street X was repaved/the Council meeting lasted ’til 2am/Konnie Lukes smiled.

Goodness knows I eat up that stuff.

But what we can learn from Clancy is that just because someone knows (and remembers) history does not mean that he is an effective leader. Just because someone knows parliamentary procedure does not mean that person will not yell a correction at the chair or talk to the dude next to him rather than pay attention to the speaker.

And what is the good of having an encyclopedic knowledge of everything that happened in Worcester if it does NOT make that person an elder statesman in the best sense of the phrase?

One also gets the impression that Clancy feels that only he could run an effective City Council meeting. And while I think Lukes or Clancy would likely get my votes for “folks who could probably run a meeting effectively”, those meeting would also be even more humorless and soul-sucking than they usually are.